


Feel the Thunder

by Qpenguin98



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reaper Missions, just u kno casually, lup gets kinda got on a bounty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 08:02:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17679563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qpenguin98/pseuds/Qpenguin98
Summary: Lup’s always been pretty good at self control, minus the times she gets so angry her hands light up without her telling them to, and after the big S and S is no different. If anything, she’s probably better at it now after eleven years stuck in an umbrella all alone.So, when she starts getting antsy about regular things, she ignores it.





	Feel the Thunder

Lup’s always been pretty good at self control, minus the times she gets so angry her hands light up without her telling them to, and after the big S and S is no different. If anything, she’s probably better at it now after eleven years stuck in an umbrella all alone.

Getting into her body again is a bit of a setback, not too great at fine motor movements and walking or feeling things or dealing with being hungry or anything really, but she’s gotten better over time. Having a solid form is excellent, and she relishes in every sensation she gets to experience. Everything is so good, even if it’s not, because she can see and be heard and feel things, actual things, and doesn’t feel like any day she’ll disappear if she doesn’t hold onto herself well enough. She’s living with her partner and her brother and her brother’s partner who’s kind of her boss, and sometimes that kid Taako insists he doesn’t care about but she knows better, and it’s the best set up she could have ever asked for.

People can see her and talk to her and touch her and it’s the best thing in the world.

So, when she starts getting antsy about regular things, the dark, someone not catching what she says, a limb going numb when she sits on it too long, she ignores it. She’s got everything back, why in the world would she focus on how fucking terrible the last eleven years were? If she ignores it, it’s fine.

“It’s probably not fine, Lup,” Barry says one night, slapping the lamp back on after she’d grabbed his arm so hard she left nail marks in the skin when he’d turned off the lights.

“It’s absolutely fine,” she says, pulling her hand back to herself. “You don’t have to turn the light back on. It’s bedtime anyway.”

“You being scared isn’t fine.”

“I’m not _scared_ ,” she says very firmly. It comes out much angrier than she intended it to, and Barry looks at her with raised eyebrows. “I’m not. I just… you know?”

He looks like he wants to argue, but he slumps a bit, eyes looking even more tired than normal as he sighs. “Yeah, I know.”

She reaches across him and turns the lamp off again, sinking back into the bed and doing her best to relax. Barry wraps his arms around her and pulls her in closer, pressing his forehead to hers.

“I’m right here,” he whispers, running one of his hands through her hair. She shivers and shuts her eyes, curling in closer to him.

Work is pretty excellent, all things considered. Kravitz, while he’d started off as stiff and strict, has gotten better at joking around and seems more comfortable with the two of them. Her and Barry have been done with training for a while and they’ve become real life full fledged reapers, and Lup kind of loves her job. Kicking ass and collecting souls for RQ? Excellent.

They’re on a trio mission today. The necromancer they’re taking down is pretty powerful and has an arsenal of dead at his disposal. Which makes his crime rate all the higher, and Lup is itching to get her hands on this guy.

“We splitting up, bone boy?” She asks Kravitz before they get into the thick of it. “Each of us take a wing of the area and try and track him down?”

“That’s not a bad plan. We’ve all got our stones tuned in, yes?”

“Check,” she says as Barry answer “Yep.”

“Good,” Kravitz says, double checking that his stone is turned into the work frequency. “And yes, I think splitting up is a good idea. We’ll all meet back up if we need to, of course, but getting a look at the area and taking down what we can by ourselves seems like the best plan.”

“Sounds good. Anything we need to know about this guy before we go in?” Barry rocks in place with his scythe and Kravitz places a hand over his mouth as he thinks.

“Not that I can think of. You know his crimes, know what to tell him when we catch him, and that’s all the more we really need. Nothing sticks out about this guy other than how powerful he is, so I guess a be careful is in order.”

“Obviously we’ll be careful. Careful’s my middle name,” Lup says, calling her scythe into her hand. “Now come on, let’s go wreck this guy’s shop.”

It’s a house they end up at, a big one. She imagines it’ll seem bigger on the inside, or have some secret dank basement going on, but for now they have a massive house to worry about.

“I call the attic!” She says. Attics always have the coolest stuff and the best monsters to deal with.

“Ugh, again?” Barry whines next to her. “I wanted attic this time.”

“If there’s anything cool I’ll grab it for you, don’t worry. And besides, basements usually have the books you’re looking for.”

“We can’t take the books,” Kravitz says, exasperated. “They’re literally against our law. I know you practice casual necromancy, but come on, Barry.”

“If I put them back in the evidence bin, can I look at them?”

“I…” Kravitz thinks for a minute, juggling his options. “If you only read them at work and put them back when you’re done, then yes.”

“Deal,” Barry says quickly, and with that the argument’s over. “I call basement then.”

“I guess I’ll take the main floors,” Kravitz says, and Lup feels a little bad. Maybe she’ll let him have attic next time, he never picks up on dibs soon enough for it to be very fair.

“Alright team, let’s go.”

Barry goes around back to get to the basement while Lup and Kravitz go in through the front door. It’s warded, but not with much. It’s easy for them to break in, almost too easy, but then again, there are a couple skeletons waiting for them. It’s simple to take them down, and Lup waves Kravitz off as she makes her way upstairs.

There’s more skeletons there, a couple of still fleshy dead bodies as well, and she cuts them down, sending what souls are left to the Astral Plane to be judged.

The stairs up to the attic feel shifty, dark in a way she can’t place, and she grips her fists and goes up them carefully. The door isn’t locked, which usually isn’t a great sign. It probably means he’s expecting them and he’s either there or has a trap set for her. She shoves the door open with the end of her scythe and steps back, waiting for something to come out and grab her.

Nothing does, and she cautiously walks inside. It’s dark and dusty in the attic, but there’s some slats of light coming in through uncovered windows. She glances around and shuts the door behind her after making sure it doesn’t have any magic attached to it. She doesn’t want to alert the guy that she’s here if he doesn’t know.

There’s not much in the attic, which is a bit of a let down. Everything’s covered in dust, looking like it hasn’t been used in ages. She blows on the cover of a book bound in… something, and opens it up. There’s not a lot inside that Barry would find useful or interesting, but she’ll bring it down anyway. It is, technically, evidence of necromantic activity.

There’s a noise to her left and she looks up only to get hit from the right. She drops the book and readies her scythe. Her attacker is standing still, body shrouded in the cloaks they’re wearing, and Lup realizes a second too late that this is an illusion as she gets slammed in the back with a blast of necrotic energy. She whirls around, scythe readied, and finds the real deal standing in front of her, much less still, still shrouded in robes.

“I’ll admit, I got a little tired of waiting for you to find me in here, so I sped up the process,” he says, looking down at his hand. “Find anything interesting in that book?”

“Nah, your theories are all basic,” she says, gritting her teeth. She can feel the sting on her skin, the sharp buzz of magic still crackling at her. “You ready to get your shit wrecked, asshole?”

“Mm, not quite,” he says, and when she swings at him, he disappears. “Though your tenacity is appreciated!”

She’s not sure where the voice comes from, somewhere above, but she keeps turning, just in case. She can’t afford to let this guy get her down.

“You are… Lup, yes?” She stiffens, holding her scythe a little closer. “A lich turned reaper, how hypocritical.”

“You’re not a lich yet, dude. You just got a lotta death on your hands to make you live longer.”

“Yes, but even I wouldn’t take whatever obvious deal it is you took. I do have to wonder though, where were you during those ten years? If I’m recalling correctly, there wasn’t even a mention of your name brought up. You have no records, no one who remembers a Lup. I did my research, and I’m certain you weren’t around.”

There’s a crackling in the corner and a few stray skeletons stagger upwards and towards her. They’re easy enough to take care of.

“Which begs the question, were you even there?”

“Oh, I was here, don’t you fucking worry about that. The real question is where are you?”

“I’m right here,” he says, thumping to the ground. She takes a swing at him only to be met with a barrier. “What, is this a sore subject?”

“You know, you’re not as clever with words as you think you are.” She can feel her heartbeat shaking her core, too fast, too high up.

“There were rumors, you know,” he says. “From the moon? Of where you finally showed up from?”

He claps his hands together and she loses sight of him, but there’s a rumble up above her. Her eye go wide when she sees what’s falling and she throws her arms up above her head to cover herself. He takes this time, wherever it is he’s hiding in the room, to blast her in the shoulder and she stumbles as the umbrellas rain down around her.

They look like the Umbrastaff. She doesn’t shriek, but it’s a close thing, sitting on the floor surrounded by mimics of her prison. Her scythe had dissipated when she’d thrown her hands up, and she frantically calls it back.

“It’s so good to see those rumors were true,” comes from directly behind her, and before she can get up he claps his hands again. Smoky arms come up from the floor and the pile of umbrellas, hands dragging up and into the air. The first pair clamp over her mouth in a death grip, the next at her arms, her legs, her middle. She struggles against them but to no avail, dragged down onto the wood floor, laying uncomfortably. She still has her eyes, she says to herself, chest heaving as she panics.

“What was it like in there, dear Lup?” He’s right overtop of her, crouched down by her head. She can only see the grin on his face, hood down too low for the rest. “Was it dark?”

A final pair of hands springs from the umbrella pile, right at her temples. She knows what’s coming and struggles harder, trying to light her hands aflame so that maybe she can fight back. They light, but the hands stay put, wrapped all around her body.

They cover over her eyes, blacking out the world, and she screams into the hands that eat up her sound and make her silent.

“I’ll come back for you later,” he calls, and she can hear his footsteps creaking as he leaves, shutting the door and locking it behind him.

Lup struggles until she can’t anymore, exhaustion creeping over her body, adrenaline from the fight gone. Her heartbeat is too fast, and so is her breathing. She feels sick to her stomach, feeling the fabric of the umbrellas on her arms and face, the soft smokiness of the hands over her body, muffling her mouth, making her unheard. She can’t see anything, can barely feel her body with how hard she’s shaking.

“—should probably meet up soon,” crackles Barry’s voice over the stone, and she sobs silently into the hands. He can’t hear her, and she can’t answer him.

“I haven’t found much, but yes. First floor?”

“Sure. Lup? You find anything?”

She shuffles, tries to wiggle her way out again, but she can’t do anything. Her fingertips go numb and she feels like she’s drowning. Everything’s dark. She can hear everything. If she can… she needs to get out. Her hands light again, but nothing happens. She screams and the hands soak up the sound. A wave of fear hits her hard and she loses herself in the feeling, loses her body and any fight left in her and finds only the dark all around her, the soft velvety touch embracing her.

She thinks she’s still screaming when a hand presses to her upper arm, its owner mumbling something repetitive. The voice is familiar, and then it hisses something and the smoky hands disappear. Her voice cracks out on itself. It’s still dark, but the insistent pressing is gone, so she tries opening her eyes.

Kravitz is leaning over her, hands holding her arms, brow furrowed. She takes in a shuddering breath and blinks, pushing herself a bit more upright with shaking arms. Kravitz is quick to help, pulling most of her weight, hand steady on her back. Her insides spasm as she looks around at the umbrellas on the floor, and he pulls her hair back as she vomits onto the ground.

Her brother really got a good one.

She gives herself a moment, breaths heaving, body shaking, and then she shoves it all down as far as it’ll go, taking a deep breath.

“Don’t tell Barry,” comes out of her mouth. She stares at the umbrella covered floor blankly. “At least not until this bounty’s done.”

“Lup—”

“I’ll tell him myself when this is done, but I don’t need him worrying about me in the middle of a raid, okay? This asshole’s not getting off easy and I’m gonna make sure of that _personally_ , but Barry will get freaked out if he hears about… this, so I need you not to tell him, alright?”

“Alright,” he says warily, keeping one of his hands pressed to her shoulder. “Do you… need a moment? It’s fine if you do.”

“I’m good, bird man.” She shoves herself into standing and Kravitz goes up with her. “Let’s go rip this guy to shreds.”

Barry’s waiting for them downstairs, and she gives him a grin when they meet eyes. The frown he’s wearing deepens. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Bitch boy just knocked me out. It’s all good.”

“You look…” he doesn’t finish his sentence, and Lup waves a hand in the air to clear it.

“I’m fine. Really. We can talk about it later, but right now we’ve got ass to kick.”

Barry looks at Kravitz, who looks up an away so that he won’t give anything away, which gives way too much away for Lup’s taste, before he nods. “Alright. Is he still upstairs?”

“Nah, he left there. Dunno where he went, but it’s not up there. He’s got illusion magic, though, so be careful.”

“Great,” Barry mutters, steepling his hands together and thinking. “There was a cellar door that looked pretty decrepit out back. Probably went there.”

“Oh excellent. Cellars are were shit really goes down.”

They make their way to the back and open the cellar door cautiously. The smell is immediately unpleasant, death rising up to greet them, and Lup wrinkles her nose. “Here goes nothing.”

She’s the first one down, she needs to prove to herself that she’s fine. Because she is. Fine, that is. She’d just like a chance to rip this dude a new one first.

The stench gets worse the lower they go, and the air feels humid and thick. There’s blood on the walls, splattered on the cool toned tiles he has set up down here. There’s a body on a table, stomach and chest split open, organs resting in the humid air. Barry makes a noise behind her and she grimaces. A horrible noise comes from the body, the ragged intake of air, and Kravitz whispers a curse under his breath. He walks around in front of her, shoulders tensed, watching the room around them.

The person looks up, neck straining, eyes dull and unfocused. They look up at Kravitz with something like desperation and he shushes them, placing a gentle hand on their forehead. There’s another inhale, more labored than the last, and they close their eyes, hands twitching where they’re pinned. Kravitz says a spell that Lup doesn’t know, something that sounds old and garbled, and his hand lights up. The person goes limp on the table, hands stilling, breathing stopping. Their soul hovers, unsure for a moment, before Kravitz pats it gently and it disappears to the Astral Plane.

“Bold!” their target says behind them. The door to the cellar slams shut, and they all turn to face him. “Very bold of you to kill my project like that. A lot of work went into that stasis spell, I’ll have you know. Got quite a bit of research out of that one.”

“You’re sick,” Kravitz says, and Lup readies herself for the impending fight. “This is inhumane, and I think you know exactly what laws it breaks.”

“Oh the laws of life and death, I’m well aware.” That smile is back, and he turns to face Lup directly. “You’re out quicker than I expected. Get some help?”

“Something like that,” she says before swinging at him. He dodges, of course, but she clips him on the side, tearing at his skin. He seems a little shocked, and then Barry takes a shot as well, nailing him in the stomach with a spell.

“Quite the team you make,” he grunts out before disappearing. “But I don’t plan on getting caught today.”

“Not your choice!” Lup yells, turning around to face the main room. “It is, in fact, our choice!”

“That’s a bit debatable,” he says from everywhere and nowhere. “Besides, I can take you down easily.”

The lights shatter and Lup can’t hold back the shriek that comes from her mouth. Barry grabs her arm, steadying her, and she pulls in a shaky breath.

“You’ve got night vision,” Barry says quietly. “Open your eyes Lup, you can see fine.”

She didn’t realize she’d closed her eyes, but she blinks them open, finding the scene a bit dulled but still clear in front of her. She breathes in and hunkers down, gripping her scythe tightly.

“How does the dark treat all of you?” The voice circles around them, and Lup waits, listens, hands ready. He’s obviously invisible, and if she listens careful enough she’ll find him.

“Barry’s a human, so he can’t be having the best time, with his sad eyes.” To her left, too far to hit.

“Kravitz,” she sees him stiffen, turning to try and find him, “I’m not quite sure. You’ve been dead too long to get a read on, but the dark does no one favors.”

She readies herself, poised to strike. “And Lup—” right behind her, right behind her, _turn_ , “I’ve already seen how well you take being blinded—”

Her scythe hits him right through the back, sticking out the front. His invisibility has dropped with the hit, leaving him open and vulnerable. He chokes, blood spitting out of his mouth. She yanks the scythe back, leaving him sputtering, collapsing to his knees. She sees him try to pull up a spell, something to keep himself alive. She rears back and slams it down into his chest, pinning him to the floor below, forcing him onto his back. The scythe, incidentally, is perfectly placed to grab his soul whenever she wants.

“What was that about the dark?” She hisses at him, sinking down so her face is closer to his. His hood has fallen back and his eyes stare up at hers, dark and empty looking. “Why don’t you tell me what exactly it is you know about me?”

His eyes widen and then he grins, letting out a pained laugh, blood spilling out of his mouth. “I underestimated you.”

“Yeah, people who do that don’t really seem to like the outcome.” She digs it in deeper and the grin drops, eyes squeezing shut. “For crimes against life and death, against the Raven Queen and those she keeps in her realm, your ass is getting thrown in the Stockade.”

She rips the scythe up, yanking his soul out with it. His body goes limp and she grabs the glowing ball in her hand, squeezing it probably too tight before letting go and sending it to the Raven Queen.  

The air is still, heavy with the scent of death, and Lup sets her scythe upright and leans against it, letting her body sag. Barry makes a ball of light and the dullness of the room fades. His hand comes to rest on her back, a steady comfort. She can’t really do more than glance to the side at him, giving him a shaky smile. He returns it, curling his arm all the way around her and taking her weight away from the scythe. She lets it disappear, resting on him.

“Not the most orthodox choice of words,” Kravitz says, joking. It lightens the mood. “Though I suppose you got all the important parts, so it’s fine.”

“Gods I hope so,” she says, not looking up from her spot on Barry. “I do not want to deal with broken rules paperwork for this guy.”

Things get quiet and Barry’s thumb is rubbing up and down as much as it can on her back. “Do we have any more jobs today?”

“No, just this one,” Kravitz says. “Go home, rest. Relax a little bit.”

“Directions for R n’ R from our boss? Unheard of,” Lup says, waving her hand loosely to grab for her scythe. Barry rips the hole for her, materializing his scythe before her. She kisses his temple as thanks. “You comin’?”

“In a bit. I’d like to talk to the Raven Queen for a little bit and do some paperwork. I’ll be home for dinner, though. Tell Taako for me?”

“Gotcha,” Barry says, stepping towards the rift. “Don’t work too hard.”

“I’ll try my best,” Kravitz says before they step through all the way, and Barry closes the rift. The living room greets them in all its untidy glory. Lup’s clothes are singed in a couple spots from magic and there’s blood on them from that asshole. She feels grimy and shifty and completely worn down.

“Bath,” she says quietly, fitting herself in Barry’s arms completely. “We’re taking a bath.”

Taako’s at the school today and Angus is away at school, so they have the house to themselves. Barry murmurs his assent and she stay in the hug for a little longer before pulling herself back and leading them to the bathroom.

She cranks up the hot water, not bothering with the cold at all. She needs to feel the heat, needs it to burn under her skin and remind her this body is real and she is real. She dips her hand into the rising water. It stings and she closes her eyes, presses her lips thin.

The cold water knob twists, adding to the water supply. It’s just a bit, but she loses the heat on her fingers. Her eyes open and she pulls her hand out of the water, squeezing it into a fist. Barry’s hand wraps around it, pulling the fingers loose. She looks at him and he’s looking back at her with open concern.

“I’m okay,” she says quietly, standing and pulling her clothes off. Ugh. They’re a bit more ruined than she expected. She throws them in the laundry corner anyway. They can deal with it later.

The bath water is hot around her as she gets in, still filling up but close enough to get in. Barry follows her example and strips down, climbing in behind her. His arms wrap around her waist and she leans back, resting her head on his shoulder and staring up at the ceiling. She turns the taps off when they get too close to overfull and lets her hands sit on top of the water.

“He knew exactly how to get at me,” she says quietly. “And that’s a problem.”

“What happened?” Barry’s voice is soft, chest rumbling against her back.

“Fuckin’—” she cuts herself off with a flat laugh. “Umbrellas.”

Barry starts, arms tightening, and she sinks her hands down to rest over his.

“And the darkness. He did this shit with magic and covered me up with these stupid hands and I couldn’t see anything or say anything and— fuck Barry, if he can figure it all out who’s to say the rest of our rat bastard bounties can’t?”

“Are you okay?”

“It doesn’t really matter if it means I’m a liability to our godsdamned jobs.”

“Yes it does,” he says firmly. “It matters. It matters to me and to Taako and to Kravitz.”

She sits up, forcing his hands off of her body. Lup draws her knees up and rests her head on them, staring at the tile of their bath shower combo.

“I’m out,” she says, furrowing her brows. “I’m out and I know I’m not going back in, so I don’t know why my brain thinks there’s a fucking problem.”

“You spent eleven years alone not knowing if you were ever going to get out, and then there were people you knew and loved all around you that didn’t know you were there. I think you’re allowed a little fear about it.”

“Not like this!” She exclaims, slapping a hand on the water. “If it’s an actual threat then sure, but this wasn’t that. This was an asshole with too much time on his hands that could make things look however he wanted and dropped a bunch of look alike umbrellas on me and covered my eyes up. That’s not valid, Barry. I couldn’t do shit. I know I have a spell somewhere that would have gotten me out of that, but I couldn’t fucking think and if I can’t get myself out of _that_ , how am I supposed to deal with the next thing? How innocuous is the next thing gonna be that puts me out of commission?”

Her eyes are stinging and she bites her lip just because she can and it hurts enough for her to know that she’s real and she bursts into tears.

Barry maneuvers her around so they’re facing each other and pulls her into his arms. He’s so soft and warm and _Barry_ and she buries her head in the junction of his shoulder and his neck. He rubs his hand up her back, rubbing at the scorch marks in her skin from the magic. She goes limp against him, soaking up the contact. He scoops some water up and pours it on her back, scrubbing off the grime that had made its way under her clothes. The water cools on her skin and she shivers, but being able to feel it is so good that she can’t really hate it.

He keeps scrubbing her down in the places he can reach, washing the blood off of her arms and her chest and her neck, leaving the face for later. There’s dust practically all over her from that stupid attic, and he washes it all of with soft hands and minimal movements.

She’s stopped crying, just letting herself sit there with her face pressed against him, hidden from the world in their little pocket of nice, when he pours a handful of water overtop her head. She sputters and pulls back, wiping at her eyes. Once there’s no longer water dripping into her eyes, she gives him a Look.

“It’s hair time,” he says casually, grabbing the shampoo. She just stares at him before laughing, grabbing some water and scrubbing at her face.

“Shit sucks, babe.” She wipes away the dirt and the blood from her face while Barry starts on her hair, careful to keep the shampoo out of her eyes.

“Shit sucks,” he agrees as he lathers her hair, careful of tangles. “But it’s okay that shit sucks. I don’t mean to sound belittling, but shit sucks for everyone and you’re allowed to feel bad. I know Taako’s still dealing with memories and us and the forty deaths thing. Magnus has to deal with Julia and forgiving. Davenport has… all the stuff he lost. Merle’s trying to be an actually good dad now and remembered being an actually decent person for the majority of his life. Even Lucretia’s dealing with… _that_.”

He pours water over her hair, rinsing out the suds as best he can with the bath water. He purses his lips and looks at her, tired eyes forcing eye contact. “And I’m not doing so hot with everything either. People remember again, you’re _back_ , you’re actually here and in front of me. Everything’s over. I know you know I’m not doing the best, and I know you get why, so cut yourself some slack. You had it _bad_ , Lup. It’s okay to not be okay after that.”

Lup’s eyes water traitorously and she sniffles, holding her hands out. Barry takes them in his, squeezing gently.

“I just don’t wanna fuck things up,” she says quietly.

“You won’t. You needing some distance from things doesn’t mean you’re fucking it up. Today sucked, it was bad, and we both know it. So just… just sit here and feel kinda goofy in this tub with me while we wash each other’s hair and try and feel better. And we can, you know, tackle the rest of it together?”

“Yeah,” she says, smiling and looking down at the fading bubbles in the water. “That’s doable.”

They finish up in the bath, Lup manhandling Barry’s head in the water so she can wash his hair, and then they shower off to get the bath grime off of themselves and condition their hair because Lup is not a fan of combing out tangled hair and she likes it when Barry’s hair is soft.

She dresses in comfy pajamas and cushy slippers and Barry does the same, sleep clothes on and some thick socks for his feet. Barry camps himself on the couch and Lup lays herself on top of him, hair up in a bun, face pressed into his chest. Barry drags the blanket off the back of the couch and lays it over them both, but mostly over her. She wraps her arms around his middle and stays there with half lidded eyes, dozing in the quiet. Barry keeps a hand on her, rubbing at her neck or squeezing at her shoulder, and she’s grateful for it.

Taako comes back eventually, making his way to the kitchen when he catches sight of them. “Everything alright?”

“It was a shitty work day so we’re making up for it,” Lup says sleepily. “Krav’s still at work. Wanted to talk to Mama Bird and do some paperwork. Said he’ll be home by dinner.”

“You’re alright?” He looks a little nervous, putting his bag on the back of a chair to do something with his hands. She smiles at him.

“Not feeling the best, but it’s okay. ‘m recharging. Join?”

Barry scoots over, shifting so there’s room for everyone in this pile. Lup whines and clings to him as he moves, burying her face in his chest. Taako sighs and plops down next to them, leaning on Barry and reaching a hand out to undo her bun, fingers combing out the strands. “Want me to braid it for you?”

“Mhm,” she says, pleased. This is exactly what she’d wanted.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it,” Taako deadpans. She hums in acknowledgment, shifting her head so it’s easier for him to get at. He mocks her quietly, twisting her hair into a braid easily, hands practiced.

He gets up eventually to make dinner, puttering around in the kitchen and holding a loose conversation with Barry with the occasional input from Lup, when she feels the need to be heard. It’s perfect, she thinks, warm and fuzzy with two of her favorite people in the whole planar system near her, caring about her, loving her. She’s here, and they know that, and most importantly she knows that.

Kravitz comes home in time for dinner, about twenty minutes before it’s done in fact, and he checks in with her first. Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, he asks in a soft voice, “Are you feeling better?”

“Much,” she says, feeling warm and fuzzy. “Had a big ol’ talk about feelings and I have been laid up here four hours, by dude. Things are pretty okay.”

“I’m glad,” he says, straightening. Barry shifts under her, coming out of whatever dozing state he’d been in. He mumbles a quiet hello to Kravitz and shifts up, pulling Lup with him.

“Come on,” he says to her. “You wanna help finish dinner?”

She mulls it over and finally agrees. She’d like to be useful to something else today, and there is nothing more lowkey than the last twenty minutes of cooking dinner. She stirs vegetables and flips some meat and puts it on a plate to rest, and it’s good. She’s surrounded by people she loves and people who love her and she can feel it in her core, warming her from the inside.

Lup is probably not okay, and she’s not quite as good at burying her emotions as she likes to think she is, but that’s alright. She’s got people and they’ve got her and that’s all she needs to go forward.

 

**Author's Note:**

> helloooooo, i am back, and this time with a lup fic, which is something ive never written before  
> there is a shocking lack of post-canon h/c involving lup and what is gonna be some p obvious trauma surrounding the umbrastaff and what all went down with that. where is it, fandom/ must i make all these h/c fics myself?  
> either way, this idea wiggled its way into my brain and would not leave, so have this!  
> please comment if you liked!
> 
> **i'm worried there will be some confusion about the title. it's from the classic Hilary Duff hit Come Clean, not the imagine dragons song. thank you for your time


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